Overdue Update

Ok, so it's been a while since I did an update.

The store is still working me as if I was full time. Although, they say they're hiring more people and things will return to normal soon.

I had my audit hell week, the last of August. We have three operating units, each of which has their own quality management system. I used to have three audits a year, one for each unit. They would be spread out between May and November. This year, I decided to get them all done at once. So I had three audits in four days. Which lead right into a week of vacation.

Lynn flew out on August 30th, and I followed him on September 1st. I left right from the audit to head for the airport. Luckily, KCI is a relatively small airport. They don't have the huge gate areas, like many large airports. Here, there are security checkpoints at each gate. So the wait in line was fairly short. Do I feel safer flying, knowing the government has implemented all of these additional precautions? NO, I DON'T!!!!

So, the flight out went through DFW. I had a one hour layover there, which turned into 2 1/2, because of equipment malfunctions. And then it was on to Seattle.

The wedding was Saturday afternoon at 5:00. They were still getting ready at 4:30. But then we found out later, they hadn't started planning the wedding until a week and a half before. I was nominated to take pictures, after I got there. I was soooo thrilled.

The next day, we met up with Lynn's brother and his new bride for lunch, before they headed out on their honeymoon, and we headed North to Vancouver. It was actually supposed to be breakfast, but everybody slept in.

The drive up was pretty uneventful. However, being it was a holiday weekend, the traffic at the border was horrendous. We sat in line for over an hour. And then had to stop and go through immigration. Not a big deal, other than the additional 20 minute delay, sitting there.

So by the time we got into Canada, it was dark and we weren't exactly sure where we going. Yeah, we had to turn around a couple of times, when we'd miss a turn. Made it to the hotel and decided to check out F212 Steam.

The following paragraph, might be considered TMI.

What can I say, once you've been to one bath house, they're all pretty much the same. Yes, there were some cute guys there, but there were also the ones, that neither of us were interested in. At one point, we ended up in the steam room. When we walked in, there was a guy sitting there, giving somebody else a BJ. The guy on the receiving end, left and so mr. sucker turned his attention to Lynn. Within a few minutes, the steam room had filled with spectators. I had a little Chinese kid who wanted me to take him to a room and have my way with him. Unfortunately, the night was getting long, and we both decided it was time to return to the hotel.

Monday and Tuesday were filled with walking around downtown Vancouver, seeing all the sights. I was surprised by two things. First, the city of Vancouver is really pretty small. We walked over most of downtown, from one end to other. And probably 60% of the population in the area is of Chinese decent. We were staying out in Burnaby, and all of the signs were in Chinese. It is a nice place and we would have liked to have spent more time there, but needed to get back to Seattle.

Got back to Seattle, late Tuesday night. We actually stopped in Anacortes, on the way back, because S & L were honeymooning on the island. They said we could stop by and have coffee. Wednesday was spent in Pike's Place Market and Seattle Center. PPM is the location of Starbucks No 1. This is SB's 35th anniversary, so it was fun seeing where it all began. Although, it's a pretty small shop.

Than over to the Space Needle for more sight seeing. S & L made it back into town about 10:00 and we all decided to go have dinner together. S was extremely tired from the trip, and when we were headed back to the hotel, from the restaurant, he got in the back seat with me and cuddled up on my arm and shoulder.

Then it was flying back to KC on Thursday morning. With a 5 hour layover in Chicago.